The Lunar Tragedy
by Rabbit Dawg
Summary: Time compression did more than anybody knew. A devastating Lunar Cry from the future has occured... in the present. Will Squall's time be prepared for it? R&R please. Flames welcome.
1. Default Chapter

DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of these characters. They belong to Squaresoft. Please  
  
don't sue. ^_^  
  
PROLOGUE: Ultimecia's Time Compression was more succesful than they thought. It  
  
didn't seem like a well thought-out plan. Time would compress and the parallel  
  
dimensions woud deny existence? There's no proof to that. But it turns out the plan did do  
  
something. Sometime in the future, the most devastating Lunar Cry will occur. It's  
  
location was just slightly north of the Shumi Village. Some monsters reached the land and  
  
attacked savagely, while other monsters plagued the oceans. Perhaps the future would've  
  
been ready for this, but Squall's time had an uncertain future.  
  
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
"It's great!!" Selphie spoke out loud as she typed it in the computer. She was  
  
instant messaging Zell. "Trabia's being rebuilt as we speak!! :)"  
  
"Booyaga," Zell typed back.  
  
"And thanks to Quisty and Xu, the Shumi Tribe is helping us!! And they're  
  
soooooooooooooooooo good with all this, like, this rebuilding thing."  
  
"I'll bet. But hey, I g2g. I gotta visit my mom."  
  
"Aww. That's so cute. ;) lol"  
  
":P Yeah, whatever. I'll see you sometim later."  
  
"Sometime* Lol. Okay, ttyl."  
  
"Late."  
  
Selphie got up from her chair. It's been a while since she was in Balamb. It's been  
  
a month or so. She had asked to go to Trabia to help rebuild it the day after they defed  
  
Ultimecia. Squall had let her go. Irvine decided to come along too. He was so sweet at  
  
times. He seemed like a playa, but he really wasn't at heart. He just likes to flirt with any  
  
girl he sees...  
  
Quistis and Xu were dispatched later to help establish friendly relations with the  
  
isolated Shumi Tribe. Their technology could greatly contribute to the rest of society.  
  
Esthar remained isolated. Yeah, Laguna was president, but he was a good one that did  
  
what the people wanted, and they wanted to continue their isolation.  
  
Zell hadn't been dispatched in a mission for a while... except once to Esthar to help  
  
liberate the city from the monsters of the previous Lunar Cry. He had gotten pretty good  
  
at Triple Triad in his spare time and was now up to Xu. She didn't feel like challenging  
  
him yet though.  
  
Seifer came crawling back to Garden. He hadn't been the same since. He was  
  
scarred both physically and mentally. Now he was just like Squall... always quiet. But in  
  
the few times he did speak, he was still the same ol' jerk. Fujin and Raijin really helps in  
  
cheering him up though.  
  
Squall and Rinoa were still together. Squall ran Garden with strict policies, but  
  
Rinoa was there to convince him to lighten 'em up. All in all, Balamb Garden was much  
  
better and more disciplined than it had been with Headmaster Cid, who had retired to live  
  
in the abandoned orphanage with Edea.  
  
Zone and Watts found their way to Garden and were actually a great help in the  
  
intelligence department, though their behavior showed otherwise. Angelo was also in  
  
Garden, and was actually the most popular one there. Some people have never spoken to  
  
Squall, but everyone knew, welcomed, and played with Angelo.  
  
***  
  
"It's so peaceful here. I love it," Quistis said out loud, as she lay on her bed in the  
  
Shumi Village.  
  
"I know, huh? I mean, Balamb is nice'n'all, but--"  
  
"--It doesn't even compare to this."  
  
"Exactly. Took the words right out of my mouth," Xu replied back. There was a  
  
brief hiatus in their conversation. It was after dinner already so they had the rest of the  
  
night off. Though Shumi Village was peaceful, it had one drawback... it didn't have cable.  
  
Boredom always came during this time. They often wondered what the other shumi did,  
  
besides Artisan, who always made things.  
  
"Would you like to have a game?"  
  
"Quistis, you always win."  
  
"I'm sorry. You'll just have to keep trying. I know!! I'll let you choose the rules."  
  
"Open, random, elemental, plus, same, same wall, trade rule: direct."  
  
"You're on." The two of them took out their decks and picked five random cards.  
  
They were on either side of Quistis' bed. Quistis got a coin out. "Heads or tails?"  
  
"Tails." The coin landed.  
  
"It's tails. Your move."   
  
***  
  
They continued to play their card game until late in the night. They both took  
  
forever to make a move, thinking of all the possibilities, and with the open rule, it took  
  
even longer to make a move. Because of this, their games usually took over an hour,  
  
which was a pretty long time considering they almost mastered all the different  
  
possibilities.   
  
"You won again," complained Xu before she made her second move.  
  
"Not necessarily..."  
  
"There's an elemental on that one remember, my card has -1."  
  
"Aww... I was hoping you woulnd't notice that. You might still win. I might make  
  
an error, you know."  
  
"Sure......."  
  
After three games, they decided to stop. All of a sudden, they heard frightened  
  
sounds from outside.   
  
"Whatever could that be...?" Quistis asked as she armed herself with her Save The  
  
Queen whip. Xu armed herself with her two daggers and they both rushed outside to find  
  
moombas running towards the city entrance, trying with all their might to keep the doors  
  
closed of the elevator closed.  
  
"What's going on?"  
  
"It is the cry from the moon. Artisan is afraid we are not going to be able to defend  
  
ourselves for long. Artisan saw the cry of the moon and it was... big."  
  
"Cry of the--? You mean the Lunar Cry!? Already!? How!?!?"  
  
"Artisan does not know."  
  
"I don't know either," commented Xu, "but we need to help them defend. I don't  
  
know how the monsters got here, but if the monsters get through, we're goners. We're in  
  
an underground village. If they get passed the doors, we'll have to fight because--"  
  
"--There's nowhere to run..." 


	2. It Begins

DISCLAIMER: I don't own any of these characters. They belong to Squaresoft. Please don't sue. ^_^  
  
PROLOGUE: Ultimecia's Time Compression was more succesful than they thought. It didn't seem like a well thought-out plan. Time would compress and the parallel dimensions woud deny existence? There's no proof to that. But it turns out the plan did do something. Sometime in the future, the most devastating Lunar Cry will occur. It's location was just slightly north of the Shumi Village. Some monsters reached the land and attacked savagely, while other monsters plagued the oceans. Perhaps the future would've been ready for this, but Squall's time had an uncertain future.  
  
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------  
  
Chapter 2 - It Begins  
  
Irvine stirred in his bed and saw Selphie still at the computer. "You still up?" Selphie jumped, startled. "Yeah. But it's for a good cause, so I don't mind. Tee-hee." She was managing finances for the rebuilding of Trabia Garden, as well as planning the new layout, the post-rebuilding celebration, and talking with other lead members of the Trabia Rebuilding Committee. And, she was also looking for a headmaster. Tragically, the headmaster was a casualty when the missiles struck. They nominated her, but she just didn't really want to do it. commanding people and sending them off into dangerous situations was just not a thing she'd enjoy doing.  
  
'Geez,' Irvine thought to himself. 'She's really happy about Trabia being rebuilt.' He sighed. "Just... be sure to get some sleep, okay?. I think you're..." he yawned. "...working too hard on this."  
  
"I don't. I mean, this place is where I had the funnest--" Irvine was snoring already. She just smiled and continued working. A remix of Julia Heartily's 'Eyes On Me' was playing quietly in the background. But she was getting sleepy. She needed to trun it up, so she pulled open the computer drawer, and found her headphones. She attached it to the speaker, and voila!! She could turn it up extremely loud and nobody would hear. It's a good thing too. The remix she was listening to was pretty loud. It had lots of percussion that would wake everyone up.  
  
***  
  
The grat hurled its gastric juices at Zell, but he leaped backward to avoid it.... only into the tentacles of another grat. It realeased it's sleep powder at point blank range. A t-rexaur was also heard coming closer.  
  
"No...." Zell said as he tried to fight the sleep. He managed to elbow the grat behind him and rip its tentacles off. But after that, he was tired. He was sleepy.... Another batch of gastric juice was launched at him and this time he couldn't avoid it. It hit his shoulder and arm and he winced in pain as the thing began burning his skin. Before he knew it, a t-rexaur's tail was swinging his way. He did the only thing he could, he put his hands up to defend, and was launched to the training area wall.  
  
"Son of a bi--- I'm gonna feel that in the morning..." he said as he rushed to the grat who's tentacles he had ripped and cast a fire spell on it. It immediately began to burn, but he kicked it anyway. It withered and died. The t-rexaur then lunged for him. He rolled to the side to avoid it and punched it in the eye. It winced in pain. 'Now to kill that other grat with the dumb stomach juice,' he thought to himself. He leaped over the t-rexaur's tail as it continued to regain it's composure after having its eyeball punched. The grat launched some sleeping powder toward him, but he jumped aside and cast another fire spell. Then, he grabbed it by the tentacles and hurled it at the T-rexaur.  
  
"Shit...Still have to kill this thing.... I know!! Cerberus!!" He suddenly felt the GF's essence enveloping him. Thank god. The t-rexaur was actually smart and feigned a lunge, only to tail-whip him again. He didn't feel it... Cerberus did. But then it was time; Zell, suddenly felt his magical powers arising. As the t-rexaur was still regaining it's footing after its weird feign-lung-then-tailwhip maneuver, Zell cast 3 meltdowns on it. One aimed for the stomach, which immediately disintegrated the t-rexaur's skin, exposing the internal organs inside. Another one was aimed for the feet. Immediately, the t-rexaur was slowed. The last one aimed for it's head. Its eyes continued to hurt and began to just roar in pain trying to blink unsuccessfully because it's eyelids had burned off. Zell lunged for the creature and began punching at its internal organs, eventually breaking some ribs. It was a bloody mess. The t-rexaur fell over and landed on it's belly. Zell just managed to get out of the way in time. He found a piece of the t-rexaur's ribs in his hand. He concentrated, and it immediately dissolved, granting him some quake spells. Then he found a small pile of powder, too small to really have an effect. Whether it was silence powder or sleep powder, he didn't know. He wasn't into those spells. He'd give it to Instructor Tre-- Quistis. 'I have to get used to calling her like that...' She always seems to store the most weirdest items. But that's because she knows how to turn all of them into magic power. Zell didn't know how to perform all the conversions, but just the ones he used. He had a jar of gaylas' mystery fluids just for meltdown spells. Then, he felt a rumble. "F*ck!! Another one!?" But nothing came. The rumble was huge. 'Probably just some earthquake...' But soon, it ended... or maybe it didn't. Nida just probably lifted the Garden off the ground. He still heard some rumbles though, so he decided to rush over to the secret area. He can see outside from there. To his shock, he saw--  
  
***  
  
"...the biggest one I've seen," said Matron from the other end of the line. Cid and Edea had called Squall. Another Lunar Cry had occured. And from Edea's tone, it didn't seem like an ordinary one. Squall sent Rinoa over to the second floor balcony to see. "Andfrom the looks of the water.... I'm not sure if Cid and I are safe here. If the monsters swim to the water, I can use some thunder spells to hopefully electrify them, but I don't think that's enough... And the only place we have to run to is Kashkabald Desert.... which has monsters as it is that I can't possibly hope to defeat. And Cid... well, he's not in his prime. He can fight for a while, but...."  
  
"I see. I'll send some SeeDs over there immediately."  
  
"Thank you Squall."  
  
"Oh, um... you're welcome Matron." Just then Rinoa came back.   
  
"She's right. It's the biggest Lunar Cry I've ever seen.... and the longest. It's still going. I've never seen so many monsters poor out before..." Squall sighed. Okay, well, first I'll have to send some people to help get Matron and Cid out of there.  
  
"I'll go too."  
  
"No. Too dangerous." Rinoa rolled her eyes.   
  
"I'm a sorceress, Squall. I can help."  
  
"And I'm your knight. So you'll stay here where it's safe." Rinoa almost got mad at that... but how could she? It was so romantic...  
  
***  
  
'An earthquake!?!?!?!? We haven't had one in, like, 10 billion years!!!!!!! And now it happens!? Right when Trabia is in the middle of construction!?'   
  
Irvine stirred from his bed. "What's.... going on?" he asked with a yawn. Selphie took off her headphones and would've asked hi mto repeat what he said, but then she heard something....... like a distant roar...... from a monster or something. She looked at Irvine. He heard it too. She picked up her Strange Vision while he took out his Exeter from under his pillow as they both rushed outside. The 'earthquake' had been going on for quite some time. But it wasn't an earthquake. Selphie saw a 'red pillar' of monsters coming from the sky that disappeared into the mountains. Then a thought hit her. "Oh my god.... Quisty and Xu!!!!!!!"Irvine realized Selphie was right. The Shumi Village was about where the monsters landed.  
  
***  
  
"They're breaking through!!!!" Xu yelled. As if it weren't obvious. The moombas keeping the door closed were scattered. They immediately got up, ready to fight. Quistis and Xu, the only two people with some fighting experience, were in the front lines.  
  
Meanwhile, behind them, the Shumis were preparing themselves. Artisan handed out weapons he had made. There were 2 rifles, with some bullets. He had a grenade with him somehow. Some members dug trenches and piled rocks behind them for throwing. The chief was there too. It seemed he had some ultima spells he was ready to use for his tribe. Then, further back, some Shumi were already digging an escape route. Nobody in there knew where the cry happened, so maybe the escape route would be ineffective, but who knows? I might work. Some were digging trenches as hiding places, covering them with leaves.   
  
As the doors opened, many monsters came in... monsters nobody has seen before. There was one giant snake, that actually had 6 arms, three on either side. It's tail was somewhere in the elevator shaft. It's fangs were huge, with poision dripping. It almost seemed like an evolved form of an Anacondaur. More unescribable monsters came. The moombas cast fire over and over, many rocks were thrown. Quistis and Xu repeatedly called on Doomtrain and Ramuh ((from FF7. ^_^)) to defeat their foes. When 4 malboro-looking things crawled down the chute, Artisan launched his grenade, follwed by an ultima spell by the chief shumi. With rocks, fire spells, rifle shots, status magic, and lightning magic all hurting them, the four things died. But more kept coming.  
  
***  
  
"Cloud Strife, Tifa Lockhart, Barret Wallace, and Aeris Gainsborough, report to the main entrance. As soon as we land in Centra, your party, led by Zell Dincht, will escort Headmaster Cid and Mat--- Edea into the Garden. Be quick. Once they are inside, we will return to Balamb. That is all." Squall turned off the microphone as he sighed. All he could do was hope Nida got there in time and that his four newest SeeD members, with Zell, could be able to escort Headmaster Cid and Matron out of there.   
  
He wasn't too scared though. Zell was competent and was able to handle monsters from the previous Lunar Cry. As for the 4 others he sent, they were good. They were really good. Seifer said Cloud was just as good as him, maybe better when he learns how to utilize the junction system. And Zell had sparred with Tifa before. He thought he had to hold back because she was girl, he but she got him bad. He never held back since then and their sparring matches were evenly matched. Squall hadn't seen Barret or Aeris fight before, but he heard they were pretty spectacular as well. They'd be able to handle it.... he hoped. 


End file.
